We're a family that believes you can do things your own way, and this blog is about our adventures doing just that. We try to spend our money thriftily, be healthy, make things instead of buying them, enjoy the simple pleasures of life, and raise our kids to have values that go against the flow of what they're taught by zombie Hitler. Actually just the things they learn from a consumer-oriented world, but that's bad too.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Which Fast Food Fries Are The Best?

My daughter Erin LOVES fries! And no, we haven't been Americanized. I consider fries to be thin cut fried potatoes as opposed to thicker cut fried potatoes which are chips.

Anyway, Erin and I set off to Leeds to test 5 different fast food fries and find out which are the best. Reasonable people might have tried fries over several weeks at different places, but not us.

We decided to test the fries on cost, temperature, crunch, saltiness and size of portion.

First up was Burger King.

Cost: (99p) 4, Temperature: 4, Crunch: 3, Saltiness: 3, Size: 3

These fries were pretty good, served quickly and had a nice saltiness to them. Plus they were the first fries we ate, yay fries!

Overall score: 17/25

Next came McDonalds fries.

Cost: (£1.09) 3, Temperature: 3, Crunch: 3, Saltiness: 1, Size: 4

These fries were also served quickly but lacked the crunch and temperature we'd experienced at BK. They come unsalted but you can add salt from a sachet, we decided to rate them as served. Still quite enthusiastic about eating fries.

Overall score: 14/25

Time for Five Guys fries.

Cost: (£2.75) 3, Temperature: 4, Crunch: 4, Saltiness: 4, Size: 5

A bit shocked at how pricey these fries were but when they came the quantity made up for it. We had a longer wait for our fries than most other places but they do fry them to order. The freshness gives the fries a great temperature and crunch. The fries have some skin left on and together with the seasoning makes for fries you can't stop eating. Also the server came over to talk to us while we ate and gave us what felt like Five Guys life history, she was friendly though and gave Erin some peanuts to take away with her. The fries came in a plain brown paper bag which was nice, JD will approve! Left the restaurant feeling a bit full.

Overall score: 20/25

Chicko's (Independent chicken fast food place)

Cost: (£1.30) 3, Temperature: 2, Crunch: 2, Saltiness: 1, Size: 4

These fries weren't that great, they didn't seem as fresh as others we'd had plus they had little crunch. They weren't salted and there was no salt available to use either. Pretty tired of eating fries now, even Erin didn't want to finish these ones.

Overall score: 12/25

KFC

Cost: (99p) 4, Temperature: 3, Crunch: 2, Saltiness: 1, Size: 3

These are usually Erin's favourite but after sampling other, fresher fries she wasn't as impressed. The price and quantity are quite good but again saltiness and crunch were a let down. Bleurgh, fries :(

Overall score: 13/25

So, Five Guys lives up to it's hype. It's worth paying more for your fries if you agree that freshness, saltiness and crunchiness are the best characteristics of the fast food fry. I'm usually not a lover of fast food fries, I can take them of leave them but Five Guys fries seem to have some kind of suspicious addictive quality to them. I should have saved one for chemical testing. :D

Eating 5 half-portions of fries in a day is a terrible idea, don't try this at home! Or at least if you do, have plenty water at hand.

Final Scores:

Five Guys - 20
Burger King - 17
McDonalds - 14
KFC - 13
Chicko's - 12

P.S. Great news! Five Guys is opening a restaurant in Harrogate (where we live), hurrah :)